A method for classifying an input character, the method comprising the steps of, in a processing system, for a plurality of character models, decomposing the input character into one or more segments in accordance with a segmentation scheme associated with the character model, and evaluating the one or more segments against a segment model associated with the character model, by using fuzzy logic rules to produce a score indicative of the conformity with the segment model, the method further including selecting the character model that produced the highest score, and classifying the input character as a character associated with the character model that produced the highest score.